


The Memorial

by Klarge16



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Memorials, Monuments, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve moves to DC, Washington DC, World War II, World War II Memorial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 02:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14154393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klarge16/pseuds/Klarge16
Summary: When Steve moves to Washington DC he must face his past and pay his respects at the World War II Memorial.





	The Memorial

When Steve woke up from the ice Fury explained that he’d been sleeping. Fury had explained about SHIELD. Fury had given him a brief history of the end of the war to present day. Fury had given him the files he had on the Commandos. 

Most of them read deceased. One read retired. One said missing in action. 

They had never found him. 

Steve had been thinking about him when he went to the boxing gym that night. The night Fury pulled him into the Avengers, into working for SHIELD. 

Then New York had happened. He had thought about staying in New York, he really had. He was a Brooklyn Boy born and bred. But it wasn’t the same without Bucky. Tony had taken him on a modern tour to show him the city, and halfway through Pepper had nudged Tony on the arm and directed them back to the hotel Tony had checked them all into. 

Steve had moved to DC the next week. 

He should have visited the memorial by now. 

He had visited the others. He’d visited the Vietnam Wall, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean Memorial. He’d visited the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR memorial, the Washington Monument. He’d attended a reception at the White House, he’d spoken to congress at the capitol. 

But he hadn’t visited the World War II memorial. 

Steve knew he should go. He knew he should pay his respects. He knew Veterans came to the memorial and he should go meet them. But he just . . . couldn’t bring himself to visit the memorial. 

The Smithsonian exhibit on Captain America was opening any day now. He needed to visit the Memorial before then. Natasha dropped him off at the end of the mall one morning, but he only made it as far as the Washington Monument before turning back. 

During one of Peggy’s lucid moments she mentioned how nice she thought the memorial had turned out. He had tried to walk from her nursing home to the memorial. But he’d turned around as soon as the pillars were in view. 

Tony had come to town and his driver dropped both him and Steve off behind the Lincoln memorial. Tony visited the memorial. Steve sat on the steps of the Lincoln memorial for over an hour. 

Steve woke up for a run one morning. He normally ran along the canal path, but he found his way to the mall instead. It was still dark out, the monuments lit up. The fountain was glowing a faint yellow, as were the pillars surrounding it. Steve paused at the entrance, listening to the water. His eye roamed over the pillars, one for each state and territory the country had in ’45. He walked to the left, to the Pacific tower first. Steve had never fought in the Pacific. Though if he hadn’t crashed the plane he would have probably been sent there after VE day. He read the few inscriptions, but stood in silence for 10 minutes before wandering over to the Atlantic tower. 

Steve knew it was wrong not to remember every man he’d heard of that had been lost in the war. But he didn’t. He was thinking only of Bucky, of that day in the Alps, that mission on the train. When he left the tower he went to stand in front of the stars at the back of the memorial. Each on represented a hundred deaths, including Bucky’s, and, Steve supposed, his own. 

Steve just saw Bucky falling, over and over, and over again. He should have prevented Bucky’s death. He should have stopped the war sooner. He should have made sure more of those boys got home to their families. Steve shook his head, he ran his hand over his face. He needed to clear his head. He needed to go for a run. 

Steve paused, he let the memories wash over him once more, and then rolling his shoulders back he started his run around the mall. Before long another jogger joined him. Steve as he passed the jogger easily, telling him “on your left,” as he sprinted past, leaving his memories behind.


End file.
